A matter of a few feet from the back door of the cabin, in the middle of a path. Discovered a couple days ago. Photos taken this afternoon. No telling when or where you’ll find mushrooms popping up.
This one is a Russula pulchra. Just 2 inches across.
I love capturing fungi in pixels. So many colors. So many sizes, shapes and textures.
The American Robin (Turdus migratorius). Wikipedia calls this a migratory bird. But that is certainly not the case with many of them. This morning 15 or 20 of them showed up at my little pond and bird bath as they often do year round. Quite the gathering.
During the autumn and winter they roam in large groups looking for berries and other wild fruits to satisfy their needs. Spring and summer they dine on a wide variety of invertebrates, including the one that I think of right away when I think of Robins, earthworms.
There are a dozen or more mature Blueberry Bushes around my cabin. Each with its own personality. Many with red twigs to accent the snow and ice that fall during the winter. Others have one last “leaf hoorah” with a brilliant show of red before the leaves finally fall to ground. November is the time to catch the show, with or without snow or ice, it is spectacular.
Turkey Oak (Quercus laevis) can be found in dry areas, sand dunes, sand hills, and hill tops from Virginia to central Florida to southeastern Louisiana. It can be grow to 30 feet tall and on occasion a bit taller.
This particular tree is happily growing in Citrus County, Florida, where is it quite common.
Happy Birthday Olivia Claire!
There are just a few Sugar Maple trees (Acer saccharum) up here in the woods around the cabin. Further up, in the higher elevations there are many many more. They’re the last ones to turn from their summery green to some warm autumn coloring and the last to drop those leaves turning the landscape into a winter wonderland, minus the snow, unless the weather gods cooperate.
That winter landscape, shades of black and white with year-round greens thrown in. Greens of pine, cedar, fir, and hemlock if those hemlocks are quite lucky. I’m a person that loves to work in color, but I also embrace the season with very little. Cover it with a thick layer of white snow, and I’m even happier.
Ventral view of a Common Buckeye Butterfly (Junonia coenia) enjoying the weeds, perched on a spent bloom of Spotted Knapweed (Centauria stoebe).
They certainly are not common here in the mountains of central Virginia. Sometimes arriving in late summer, staying through early fall. There are years when I don’t see any at all. When I do see them though, I’m quite pleased.
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When I need a photograph for my blog, just throw in RAIN and I know that I can find exactly what I want. Just take a bit of time. Roam with the camera. There it is.
And tonight’s post contains a Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens) with the required rain. The Spruce, dreaming of becoming a Christmas tree, trying on raindrops as ornaments.
A Monarch caught in a splash of sunshine. A perfect color combination, purple and orange. A brief bit of comfort in autumn.
Oh, I miss seeing the bears that usually roam through the yard. American Black Bears (Ursus americanus). Their population has dropped drastically the past few years due to mange, a type of serious skin disease caused by parasitic mites.
The yard seemed to be a highway for them. They typically chose marking trees or marking poles along one of their favorite paths to leave their scent, while rubbing, clawing and biting the tree or pole. No matter their age or sex, but most often mature males do the marking, during mating season.
Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria) is a lovely small tree that grows next to my Mom’s front door in Florida. Right at home where it is a native plant.
Yaupon Holly is a dioecious, evergreen plant native to southeastern North America, including southeast Virginia through Florida, west to southeast Oklahoma and central Texas.
Those beautiful berries attract many birds, including Cedar Waxwings and Robins, and the tree itself is not attractive to deer. Seems the perfect combination.